“Squad”-adjacent Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman pled guilty on Thursday to pulling a fire alarm last month in a House office building that temporarily disrupted a debate over a GOP-backed funding bill.
As the Tampa Free Press reported on Thursday, the New York Democrat, through a plea deal with prosecutors, will get off lightly for the misdemeanor offense. He must write a letter of apology to the U.S. Capitol Police and pay a $1,000 fine.
Fox News reported that D.C. Superior Court Judge Dorsey Jones told Bowman that he could get up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine if he fails to write the letter.
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But House Republicans want more accountability for Bowman’s stunt.
According to the website JustTheNews.com, GOP Rep. Bryan Steil of Wisconsin is advocating for an ethics investigation into Bowman for his conduct.
“He received a municipal citation at the D.C. level, not a federal charge,” Steil told Just the News. “But I think there’s a lot of questions to be answered in particular, by the House Ethics Committee, in particular, whether or not he was acting to delay the floor procedure.”
Steil’s call for an Ethics Committee probe is the latest in a series of GOP condemnations of Bowman.
New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis called for the House to expel Bowman for the stunt.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene advocated that the Justice Department pursue charges against Bowman that are separate from the Washington, D.C., charge of issuing a false fire alarm.
GOP Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan said she was drafting a motion to censure Bowman, a serious sanction that stops short of kicking him out.
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Still another New York Republican, Rep. Mike Lawler, called on Bowman to simply resign over the incident.
For his part, Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, stuck with having the Ethics Committee go after Bowman.
“It sure looks like he was trying to slow down the action on the floor at a moment in time when the Democrats were delaying a vote on the floor to try to allow the Democratic-led Senate to get their legislation done before the House. I think a further investigation is warranted,” Steil told Just the News.
Noting Bowman was a high school principal before entering Congress, Steil added, “Every school that I’ve ever attended, you have fire alarm drills and so he knows exactly what happens when you pull a fire alarm. It was clearly not an accident or a technique to open up a door.”
Bowman has claimed that he pulled the alarm to open a door he was trying to exit in order to cast a vote on the House floor.
Yet the Free Press reported on Thursday that the House released video showing Bowman deliberately tore down signs that advised against opening the door because an alarm would sound, and then pulling the fire alarm.
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